Concerns understood; but now it's time to GROW

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DundeeTed

Not clear on what you mean by "vastly superior infrastructure". Also, McMinnville may be the cultural, economic and industrial hub of the Yamhill Valley (western Yamhill county). But Newberg-Dundee is the cultural, economic and industrial hub of the Chehalem Valley (eastern Yamhill county).

07:14 am - Mon, April 15 2013

sbagwell

Our sphere of reference is our circulation area. It includes several small outlying towns, but not Newberg. Like McMinnville, Newberg is clearly capable of standing on its own. However, the county's smaller communities, including your hometown of Dundee, could use the county's help. And we'd like to see them get it.We don't think McMinnville has anything to fear from that, and by extension, neither does Newberg. We think they can rest easy.Steve Bagwell, Managing Editor

09:47 pm - Mon, April 15 2013

DocKat

I hope the NewsRegister realizes not all of its "circulation area" agrees that McMinnville has a "vastly superior infrastructure". Especially when your own online access is so inferior to the Newberg Graphic and other neighboring news organizations.

McMinnville (and the News Register) looks out for itself, promotes itself, and believes its own hype at the expense of those "several outlying towns".

Additionally, I applaud the MEDP's integrity in using county/state funds for a county-centric, state-mandated economic development plan.

And you are right when you state: [McMinnville] "will be doing the right thing if it simply stands back." And then the rest of us "can rest easy".

01:08 pm - Thu, April 18 2013

sbagwell

The Newberg Graphic went to a subscription-only web operation long before the News-Register. More than 75 percent of the state's weeklies and small dailies now restrict access to subscribers, and most of the rest are moving that direction. The Seattle Times just went subscription-only, signaling the big dailies are also looking to put their web operations on a more business-like basis.You pay for medical and dental services, car repair services, vet services, financial services and so forth. Why should only news services be offered to all free of charge, and how are we supposed to support that model over the long term?Nothing in life is truly free, and that includes professional news reports, whether they come from the Graphic, the News-Register or some other source.And if there is a city in our circulation area that has superior infrastructure to McMinnville, please cite it for me.As I noted, Newberg does NOT lie in our circulation area, nor does McMinnville lie in the Graphics. We are simply neighboring private business operations, each trying to make a go of it as best we can in a changing news environment. So, as I noted before, that assertion was never meant to include Newberg.Steve Bagwell, Managing Editor

04:04 pm - Thu, April 18 2013

Jeb Bladine

DocKat is right to point out that we should be careful using language such as "vastly superior" in writing about a countywide issue.As Steve Bagwell points out, that comment was made in thinking about our immediate newspaper market area, where McMinnville indeed has a more developed industrial base than found in the surrounding small communities. That's no criticism of those great communities, just a comment on respective levels of industrial development.Newberg, of course, has its own highly developed industrial base, and also will benefit from this countywide economic development effort.Mr. Bagwell might have mentioned that NewsRegister.com has about 30,000 unique visitors each month, with between 600,000 and 750,000 monthly page views. We recognize the value that the Newberg Graphic adds to its publication with an active website, but do not agree that a comparison would find the N-R website inferior.Thanks for pointing out the language issue of our editorial comment.Jeb BladineNews-Register